Thomas Robert Malthus

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 - 1834) was born into a family of landowners in Rookery, in the south-east of England. The father was taken over by ideals of revolutionary France.

Malthus from an early age participated in scientific debates, gained knowledge first at home, then at Cambridge. In the years 1793 - 1797 he was a lecturer there. And in 1797, was ordained a priest and was for some time vicar in his native County. He then became professor of history and economics in Haileybury college and he held this position until his death.

In 1798 he wrote a "Discourse on the Law of the population and its impact on the future progress of society", along with comments on speculation of Godwin, Condorcet and other most fully writers. His views described fully in the book "Principles of Political Economy with an overview of the possibilities of practical application."

Principle of Population

Malthus in his "Discourse on the Law of the population" described two premises: first that food is essential to life of every human being and the second - sexual attraction is something essential and unchanging. They however, differently influence the population growth and lead to contradictions. In his work of Malthus wrote: "the population increases exponentially, and the means of subsistence in arithmetic progress."

Malthus argued that the real cause of poverty is the lack of means of subsistence for the growing population. And the balance restores itself by poverty, inhibiting reproduction. Also epidemics and war will reduce the population of the country. In order to reduce the population, Malthus called for restraint and inhibition of reproduction instinct.

The theory of rent and the effective demand

The starting point for the theory of effective demand the issue of implementation of the manufactured product. The capitalists themselves can not do that, because in order to invest they must have savings. While workers carry out only part of the product corresponding to their wages. Total demand capitalists and workers is inadequate and gives birth to overproduction. Malthus believed that the demand gap in this case fill spending of landowners, officials, clergy and other non-productive social groups. Malthus notices in this way, the huge importance of effective demand in maintaining economic balance.